University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Senate

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LB.08.01

 

UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS
URBANA-CHAMPAIGN SENATE

Committee on the Library
(Final; Information)

LB.08.01          2007-2008 Annual Report

The Senate Committee on the Library (SCL) met nine times during the 2007-2008 academic year. The main items of business have been: 1) advising the Dean of the University Library and the Senate on the process of identifying and developing new service models; 2) reviewing and revising the Committee’s charge and membership;  3) advising the Provost on priorities for the use of funds generated from the student Library and IT fee; 4) ensuring Library costs to accommodate new and revised academic programs are appropriately addressed in proposals that come before the Senate; and 5) advising the Provost on the reappointment of the Dean of the University Library.

The challenge of sustaining and building the Library collections in a difficult budget environment was a common theme in these discussions.  Professors Steve Lumetta and David Sansone served as SCL’s liaisons to the Library’s Collection Development Committee, which focuses on allocation of funds for maintaining and developing the Library’s collections.  Although the Library collections continue to grow in overall size, several other university libraries have been growing at faster rates, and consequently some will soon surpass the UIUC in size of the collections if present trends continue.

New Service Models
Throughout the year, Dean Kaufman reported to the SCL on a process of identification and development of new service models, which involved soliciting proposals from Library faculty, town hall style meetings on campus, and solicitation of input from the campus community on alternative configurations for the Library services.  The SCL offered advice throughout the process and after the Budget Group Plus released its final report (Library Services for the 21st Century at UIUC available online http://www.library.uiuc.edu/committee/budgetplus/nsmfinal/toc.html) outlining priorities for developing new service models in the future, the SCL issued a statement in response which was shared with the Library faculty.

Revised Charge and Membership
As recommended by the Senate Review, the SCL reviewed its charge and membership, and proposed that its charge be expanded to include providing advice to the Senate on Library issues, and its membership be expanded to include two graduate students on the SCL. These revisions were accepted by the Senate.

Student Library and IT Fee
After conversation with the Senate Executive Committee and the Office of the Provost regarding the decision making process regarding the use of funds generated by  the Student Library and IT fee, the Provost formed a committee to provide advice on setting priorities for the use of these funds.  Associate Provost Ruth Watkins met with the SCL to discuss the decision making in the past and the composition of the new advisory committee.  The advisory committee includes broad representation of student and faculty users of the Library and IT services and includes one representative from the SCL. Mark Hasegawa-Johnson has agreed to serve in this capacity with the intention of continuing this service in the 2008-09 academic year.  Professor Hasegawa-Johnson has communicated the SCL priorities to the advisory committee and informed the SCL about the priorities of other groups represented on the advisory committee and their deliberations.

Costs of New and Revised Academic Programs
In the past, a significant number new or revised academic programs imposed new costs on the Library that were not adequately represented in the proposals approved by the Senate.  In 2006-07, SCL met with the Chair of the Education Policy Committee and the Provost to address this problem.  The Provost decided to revise the proposal format to require proposals to be reviewed by the Library before being submitted to the Provost’s Office for consideration by the Senate.  The Library would then indicate when new resources were needed to accommodate the new program.  Initially the Provost indicated that this change would occur starting in August 2007, but a number of Colleges and Departments requested that this change be delayed one year because they had proposals that had been developed earlier that were in various stages of review under the previous proposal system.  The Provost agreed to delay the implementation of the new process for a year, and sent all new proposals to the Library (Tom Teper) for review at the same time that they were sent to Education Policy Committee. Starting in August 2008, all proposals to the Senate should be reviewed to by the Library before submission to the Provost.

Advising the Provost on Reappointment of the Dean of the Library
In accordance with the charge of the SCL in the Senate bylaws, the SCL communicated to the Provost its recommendation regarding the reappointment of the Dean of the Library after discussing the matter in the absence of the Dean of the Library or other members of the Library Administration.

Senate Committee on the Library
Gregory F. McIsaac, Chair
Mark Hasegawa-Johnson
Caroline Hibbard
Alfred Kagan
Paula Kaufman, ex officio
Tony Kirsch
Steve Lumetta
Patrick Maher
Mary Mallory
Danielle Postula
Edward Roy
David Sansone